Academic Movers & Shakers

LJ goes in depth with Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, delving into just how and why they pulled off the projects that brought them recognition as innovators, change agents, and more. This series of interviews is sponsored by SAGE. For a deeper dive into what made our 2014 Academic Movers so exceptional, download our 20-page collection of insightful interviews.

In our most recent 2015 In-Depth Interview with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Hosea Tokwe. In 2007 Tokwe, at the time a senior library assistant at Midlands State University (MSU) in Kweru, Zimbabwe, was given two boxes of books bound for the Matenda Primary School in rural Zimbabwe, donated by former students. The difficulties he encountered in simply getting the books to Matenda inspired him to singlehandedly establish a library at the school—no small task, as Zimbabwe was in the midst of ongoing political and social unrest and his first forays into the rural community were met with mistrust. But Tokwe prevailed, convincing the school to convert a classroom into its first library in 2008, and—in addition to serving as chief library assistant in MSU’s special collections department—he has continued to work with outside groups to continue to fill its shelves ever since.

In our first 2015 In-Depth Interview with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Kyle Courtney. In 2014 Courtney, Harvard University’s copyright advisor, brought together his first cohort of Copyright First Responders (CFRs)—a group of volunteer librarians who spent their summer in his Copyright Immersion Program in order […]

In the latest of our In-Depth Interviews with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Brittany Dudek. In 2011 she was serving as electronic resources librarian at Illinois Central College, a large community college in north central Illinois, and working closely with library services director Cathryne Kaufman.

In the latest of our In-Depth Interviews with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Cathryne Kaufman. In 2011 she and Brittany Dudek were working in the library at Illinois Central College, a large community college in north central Illinois—Kaufman as library services director and Dudek as electronic resources librarian. In the process of collaborating on a number of programs, they realized that there weren’t enough professional development opportunities aimed at community college librarians, whose needs often differ significantly from those of their counterparts at four-year academic institutions.

In the latest of our In-Depth Interviews with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Amed Demirhan, who in 2011 revitalized the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, the capital city of Adamawa, a largely rural state on Nigeria’s northeast border. Within a year of his arrival, […]

In the latest of our In-Depth Interviews with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Sarah Sagmoen, learning commons and user services librarian at the University of Illinois Springfield’s Brookens Library. Hired as a visiting instructional librarian in 2009, Sagmoen was managing the reference desk and public computers by the end of her first year. In her third year at Brookens, her work inspired the library to create the position she now occupies. Between her academic duties and a lively student outreach program, she is busy building a strong community both inside the library and out.

In the latest of our In-Depth Interviews with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke with Alicia Virtue, electronic services librarian and department chair of learning resources at Santa Rosa (CA) Junior College. Virtue not only manages the website and ILS for both campus libraries and teaches a course […]

In the latest of our In-Depth Interviews with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, we caught up with Omar Poler, an Associate Outreach Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS). Omar Poler has a deep and personal connection to the American Indian community that has been enriched by his library work and motivated him to form the Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums (TLAM) Project, one of the few projects to incorporate American Indian topics into LIS education.

In our latest In-Depth Interview with Library Journal Movers & Shakers from academic libraries, sponsored by SAGE, we spoke to Stephanie Davis-Kahl, the scholarly communication librarian at Illinois Wesleyan University. In building an institutional repository for the college, Davis-Kahl and her colleagues wanted to showcase not only the work of the Illinois Wesleyan faculty, but also their students. She has helped to find several student-run journals homes at Illinois Wesleyan, and serves as faculty coeditor on the student led journal Undergraduate Economic Review. She spoke about the challenges of hosting student-led journals, the luxuries of doing so at a small school, and offered a few tips for librarians looking to enter this rapidly growing field.